swsefandomcom-20200215-history
The Kolkpravis
Reference Book: Star Wars Saga Edition Galaxy at War See also: GaW Military Units Kalee is a harsh, dirt-poor world that has been ignored by the rest of the galaxy. The only native that most beings have heard of is General Grievous. Society on Kalee is dominated by thousands of Kaleesh tribes linked by complicated bloodlines and by feuds that have endured for centuries. The formation of The Kolkpravis- a united army of tribal warriors from across the eastern hemisphere- became possible only after extraplanetary threats eclipsed old hatreds. The soldiers of Kalee's Kolkpravis tested their swords against Thalassian slavers and ore raiders, but the planet remained largely isolated, its enemies never granting it the importance the Kaleesh believed to be their birthright. During the Kadok Regions' Bitthævrian expansion citra 65 BBY, the Republic failed to topple the Bitthævrian regime on Guiteica with a secret coup. Rather than allow their meddling to come to light, the Republic trained The Kolkpravis as an insurgent force. Armed with Czerka Adventurer Rifles and covertly trained by Jedi, including Count Dooku and Qui-Gon Jinn, The Kolkpravis pitted themselves against the soldiers of Guiteica's m'Yalfor'ac Order. Within five years, the Bitthævrians withdrew in defeat, and The Kolkpravis never learned that they had acted as the Republic's puppets. Soon, the warriors of The Kolkpravis had to defend against a real and imminent threat. The insectoid Yam'rii (Which the Kaleesh called the Huk) invaded Kalee while scouring for colony worlds, and the besieged Kolkpravis found inspiration under the leadership of Qymaen jai Sheelal and his soulmate, Ronderu lij Kummar. Sheelal organized The Kolkpravis into eight divisions, each answerable to one of the Izvoshra- eight elite soldiers responsible for Sheelal's protection and the execution of his will. After driving the Yam'rii from Kalee, Sheelal and and The Kolkpravis chased after the aggressors back to their homeworld, massacring both soldiers and civilians. The Yam'rii petitioned the Republic's Senate to save them from extinction, and Jedi intervention brought an abrupt end to the Huk War. Shamed by this conclusion to their crusade, The Kolkpravis suffered further as economic sanctions drove Kalee into ruin. Sheelal- now calling himself Grievous as a tribute to his companion Ronderu following her death in combat with the Yam'rii- took jobs with the InterGalactic Banking Clan to alleviate his homeworld's misery. Yet he was a warrior, not a thug, and soon returned to lead The Kolkpravis after learning that the Yam'rii had desecrated Kaleesh burial grounds on the colony world of Oben. The IBC sabotaged the ship carrying Grievous and the eight members of the Izvoshra, sending it into the Jenuwaa Sea. Grievous lived on, reborn as a cyborg to serve Count Dooku in the Clone Wars. Bentilais san Sk'ar, a former revolutionary turned tyrant of the western hemisphere and the only member of the Izvoshra to survive the crash, rallied The Kolkpravis. He led the slaughter of the Yam'rii on Oben and moved his people to that resource-rich world. After Captain Thawn was forced to raze Oben as part of his pacification of the fringe territories, Sk'ar left Kalee space to serve the Empire. The Kolkpravis, led by a female warrior believed to be the second incarnation of Ronderu lij Kummar, continued to guard the remnants of their once-proud civilization. Methods The Kolkpravis are formed from smaller tribal fighting forces. Each unit follows similar methods- hide, scout, raid, and retreat- refined over centuries of intertribal warfare. A Kaleesh tribal warrior is an expert at desert, mountain, or jungle combat, depending on which part of the planet he or she is from, and boasts an expertise at camouflage. Warriors can spend months in the field, keeping a wary eye on rivals while hunting for Mumuu or other animals to bring back to their families. The landscape of Kalee is riddled with rocky caves and other boltholes, undetectable from the surface and known only to tribal leaders and veteran scouts. The Kolkpravis engage in tactics similar to those of their forebears, albeit with a higher degree of organization. Although Kolkpravis units are usually made up of members of a single tribe, different units are expected to cooperate when thrown together into a horde, a brigade, or a khanate. Orders are to be obeyed without question under penalty of death. As a land-based fighting force, The Kolkpravis have no skill at space combat. When attacking a planet, large transports race through the battle zone to a controlled crash landing, whereupon The Kolkpravis disembark and disappear. Against weak foes, The Kolkpravis swarm and kill every combatant; against strong foes, they go to ground to engage in wars of attrition that can last for years. Kolkpravis warriors carry Czerka Adventurer Rifles, which are equally effective at sniping and at quick bursts of close-range fire. For melee combat, all Kolkpravis soldiers carry one-handed Lig Swords, and many employ 2-meter-long Shoni Spears. Missions The Kolkpravis are relentlessly martial. They have no concept of downtime and never retire from service. If a mission requires it, Kolkpravis warriors spend weeks creeping silently through wind-whipped ravines to set up better shots at enemy encampments, even if it means losing digits to frostbite and half their body weight to starvation. Since Kaleesh culture is built around the belief that great warriors can fight their way to divinity, suicide attacks are encouraged as a battlefield tactic. During the Bitthævrian War and the Huk War, The Kolkpravis landed on worlds controlled by the enemy and conquered key territories with hopscotch tactics- half the warriors held the line while the other half pushed into the enemy's formation, then the warriors in the front line held the line while those behind advanced. If the tide turns against them in battle, The Kolkpravis scatter and carry on a guerilla war from deep cover, inflicting demoralizing enemy losses during a long campaign. The Kolkpravis brigades that defend Kalee adopt much the same style, using their cave network to strike without warning. The vast majority of Kolkpravis missions involve the speedy and surreptitious elimination of isolated enemy targets. A large fighting force appears only when victory is certain and all warriors want to count themselves among the day's anointed. The eight Izvoshra are military Khans in charge of the eight Kolkpravis divisions, and they also served as the personal bodyguards of General Grievous. Their missions involved protecting their leader from challengers and assassins. After Grievous was apparently killed in the crash of his ship, the institution of the Izvoshra lived on. Acceptance into its ranks is considered an important step on the road to godhood. Rank Structure The most basic unit of The Kolkpravis is the tribal kamen, a small tactical team of 2 to 40 warriors related by family and geology. These groupings were the essence of warfare on Kalee for millennia until the formation of The Kolkpravis refocused tribal rivalry on the strange customs and appearances of offworlders. A kamen is led by a Blackarm, in informal tribal title bestowed on its strongest member. Roughly 100 kamen make up a horde, which is led by an officer who carries the title of Tarkhan. Brigades are formed from 100 to 200 hordes and are led by officers known as Baatars. Their command often is highly decentralized, since Kolkpravis tactics are guerilla in nature and a Baatar must rely on message carriers and guesswork to keep track of his or her troops. A khanate is a military division formed from several brigades, answerable to one of the eight Khans of the Izvoshra. The Izvoshra leave most battlefield planning to their Baatars, instead concentrating on special missions on behalf of their leader. The title of Supreme Military Commander, or Khagan, was held by Grievous and has been bestowed on the leaders who succeeded him. Most members of The Kolkpravis are highly concerned with rank advancement, since great military leaders can earn honored positions in the afterlife. Those who don't have the stuff of divinity are likely to go on suicide missions to take out enemy targets, which is considered a shortcut to immortality. Kolkpravis warriors are rarely found in the greater galaxy, but they occasionally work as mercenaries or fighters. No matter how much contact they have with outsiders, Kaleesh remain austere, taciturn, and humorless.